Bridging the Gap Between
Private Memories & Official History
Comfort Women
Until now, the fracture
between individuals’ private
memories and the official
history that comfort women
were forced into sexual slavery
by the Japanese military over
the 20th century rendered such
individual memories as taboo.
There’s a lack of conversation
that integrates both the
individual pain that each
comfort women endured
and are still enduring through
trauma and the politically-
charged demand for a formal
apology that contemporary
Koren citizens require of the
Japanese government.
The process of listening to and
speaking about the experiences
of comfort women is meant to
challenge the existing historical
discourse and oppose the
unified strategy that simplified
and diminished the experiences
of survivors. The goals of
historicizing the experiences of
comfort women are to
recognize such experiences as
being a part of “women’s
history” that were previously
monopolized by national history
and to properly present the
stories from the perspectives of
the survivors.
Read Her Story
Read Her Story
Jeon-Yeop Gong
Read of her story of being lured to Pyongyang with
the false promise of work and being forced into
sexual slavery in China (Haicheng, Shanghai, and
Harbin) by the Japanese military from the age of 15.
Jeom-Dol Jang
Abducted in Yeongdeungpo, Seoul,
Jeon-Dol Jang spent years as a
comfort woman from the age of 16
for Japanese soldiers near the Mudan
River, in Manchuria, and later, Singapore.
2000
1990
1980
1970
1960
1950
1940
1930
1920
1910
Year of Birth
Year Abducted
Year Reported
1
1
1
2
2
9
Created by Grace Moon
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